Need to vent! Someone copied my Ad!

I am so ticked off right now! I was browsing other providers' ads, the way many of us do, to scope out our competition and see what others provide in terms of their set-up and program, etc. I just came across a woman who had copied and pasted entire paragraphs of my ad!!

I work very hard on all of my writings for my business, and while I am happy to help a fellow provider by sharing contract wording and such, that does not apply to my ADVERTISEMENT! :no:

I mean for goodness sake, any potential clients who might happen to notice the exact same wording in our two ads, are very likely to pass us both by, because they won't know WHO is the loser who couldn't write her own ad, and who is the one who took the time to do it.

I've just sent her a message introducing myself as the woman she has plagiarized, and letting her know that I've copied down her ads, including the one for a separate business from her daycare, along with her phone number, and that if she doesn't remove my paragraphs from her ad immediately, I'll take legal action and also notify the ad site.

I'm just so p!*$#@ off! I mean who does that??! Yeah, I'm flattered that my creativity and writing skills are coveted, but at least change the damn thing up a LITTLE BIT! Why are some people so lazy and feel so entitled??! :mad:

Thanks for listenin', ladies! I needed to vent! :D

Oh, that must be so frustrating! I am always browsing ads to get ideas, but I wouldn't ever copy someone else's. It stands to reason that people wouldn't contact either one, so the copycat is shooting herself in the foot, as well as duping you.
Excellent way to take action though! I hope she takes down her plagiarized ad and comes up with something original.

Super annoying! While it is flattering that she feels your program is better than hers, it is lazy, disrespectful and pretty stupid to copy someone else's ad. I once saw an ad that was clearly copied as it referred to a daycare with a different name than the posters!!!

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Originally Posted by jammiesandtea

I am so ticked off right now! I was browsing other providers' ads, the way many of us do, to scope out our competition and see what others provide in terms of their set-up and program, etc. I just came across a woman who had copied and pasted entire paragraphs of my ad!!

I work very hard on all of my writings for my business, and while I am happy to help a fellow provider by sharing contract wording and such, that does not apply to my ADVERTISEMENT! :no:

I mean for goodness sake, any potential clients who might happen to notice the exact same wording in our two ads, are very likely to pass us both by, because they won't know WHO is the loser who couldn't write her own ad, and who is the one who took the time to do it.

I've just sent her a message introducing myself as the woman she has plagiarized, and letting her know that I've copied down her ads, including the one for a separate business from her daycare, along with her phone number, and that if she doesn't remove my paragraphs from her ad immediately, I'll take legal action and also notify the ad site.

I'm just so p!*$#@ off! I mean who does that??! Yeah, I'm flattered that my creativity and writing skills are coveted, but at least change the damn thing up a LITTLE BIT! Why are some people so lazy and feel so entitled??! :mad:

Thanks for listenin', ladies! I needed to vent! :D

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If your ad was copied here on DaycareBear, don't hesitate to email us a link to this user's ad. We'll remove it from the site as this clearly infriges your copyrights.

I feel your pain. I was in the same situation last year on here, while randomly browsing other providers ads I found a woman in my area that copied my ad word for word. I was livid. First I tried contacting the provider to give her the opportunity to change it. She didn't. Then I posted in my ad her daycare name, her name and information clearly stating that she copied my ad and mine was the original one. I worked hard on writing my ad. She ended up changing it to different wording (likely copied from a different provider) because half of the ad is written in perfect English (professional) and the other half is in hers. Now I know why she copied mine because clearly she couldn't write her own.

My thoughts are if you aren't articulate enough to write your own ad, then you shouldn't be doing daycare.

Good luck, and contact daycarebear because they will get it solved.

Jenn

Oh wow, really? Someone on daycare bear did this to me a few months ago. I want to go see now whether she's changed it. I ended up slightly tweaking mine so that it wasn't the same any more, because I didn't want to look silly.

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Originally Posted by admin

If your ad was copied here on DaycareBear, don't hesitate to email us a link to this user's ad. We'll remove it from the site as this clearly infriges your copyrights.

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Thanks admin, but it wasn't here on daycarebear that I found it. I did look her up here as well just now, and she hasn't used my ad on her posting, so that's good. I also see that sometime in the last hour or so she has finally removed all of her previous ads from the site in question, and posted a new one without pictures of her space (I can still identify her, lol), but more importantly, she didn't use my words in this new ad.

Something else I realized after re-reading my words on her ad, is that she copied some of it from either daycarebear or my WEBSITE, because she quoted my philosophy/mission statement verbatim, and I hadn't had it written on my ad for that particular site. (it's kijiji) Umm, stalking me much? (lol) Creepy!

that is absolutely horrible! I feel for you :( :no:

That is creepy! Good for you for calling her on her plagerism and if it were me I would report her and ask the admin to remove her ads, definitely.

Another update: So, as I had said earlier, she took down the ad this afternoon, and put up a new one without my paragraphs in it. Then she sent me an apology, though she blamed it on a student volunteer she had working for her... yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiight... I'm not quite swallowing THAT, but whatever. At least it's taken down, and with any luck she won't do it again.

I think I scared her straight! ;) :laugh:

I have had my ad copied (that i know of) 3 times so far. Every time it has been someone in the same neighbourhood as me. I don't look at ads not local so I sometimes wonder how many others have copied?

I do feel your pain. I know I was really upset and frustrated.

Glad you got it solved.